Friday, August 30, 2013

21ST CENTURY CAVEMEN

$10 BILLION KILLING MACHINE
Johann Wagener 8-30-13

We like to think we have come a long way from those days when we lived in caves, wore animal skins, carried clubs and sticks, killing and eating whatever we could and roaming this terra forma we call earth looking for ways to survive. We were know as cavemen back then and now seen as primitive creatures with very little to brag about.

So how far have we come? And how much have we evolved?

A little reflection will reveal that we have actually have regressed and become more primitive than our ancestors. Not on the outside; well at least not all of us. We have turned in the animal skins for droopy jeans and baggy shirts. We've shaved, waxed, or quaffed the body hairs and sprayed away most of the smell, but underneath it all we are much darker and brutal at heart than our primitive ancestors.

Rather than killing to survive we kill to entertain ourselves. We devote countless hours and billion of dollars to creating and participating in savage-like rituals that satiate our lust for blood and brutally maim or kill others of our kind in the process.

The recent NFL pay-off of almost a $1 Billion (which is chump change in a $10 Billion industry) to avoid having to disclose all the dirty little secrets about how these sharp/slick "business people" effectively dupe young and not so bright kids into playing "gladiator" and hiding the truth about the price they will pay; with both their health and sometimes lives.

How can we say that a society that condones and endorses this barbaric behavior has progressed from those days when we lived in caves? That's something to think about before sitting down with your friends, family, and especially the kids, to stare at a 50" HDTV spectacle where full grown men chase each other up and down a field mutilating and battering each other over a piece of pig skin. Really? Is there anything better you could do with your time?

You can bet that those people that rake in all that cash hope you don't wise up any time soon.

The size and scope of the proposed $765 million settlement between the N.F.L. and the more than 4,500 retired players who sued the league, claiming it had hid information about the dangers of head trauma, are likely to be debated. But, as in other such deals, each side had ample reason to compromise.